Odyssey
by JAFootnote
Summary: It had been an order. Bleeding and broken as he was, he would obey it. He would find his way back. LeviEren/Riren


He was lost. He was hurt. He wanted to fall to the ground and pass out, make it easier for death to find him. He was tired of hiding from it. Scolding- _loving_ -silver eyes flashed in his mind, and he gritted his teeth, pushing himself to continue stumbling forward.

Lifting dimming green eyes to the sky, Eren searched desperately for a star, the star pointing back to the makeshift headquarters, back to the scouts, back to Captain Levi. He bit back a sob as he gripped his still broken and bleeding arm tighter. For whatever reason, he hadn't healed yet- _Squad Leader Hanji did say that my constant shifting has started taking a toll on my body_ -and he was losing more strength by the second. His mind wandered before and then behind him as he forced his body to keep going.

They had been reckless, once, in their lovemaking. Eren followed Levi onto the walls during the Captain's patrol the night before their excursion. For once, Captain Levi had expressed concern; concern for the mission, concern for himself and his troops, concern for _Eren_. Perhaps Eren was foolish to feel touched by this rare expression of raw emotion from Levi. If so, he was even more foolish to start crying and vowing to keep everyone alive and stay alive himself. He wouldn't ever really be thankful for the deaths which led him to the Scouting Legion. Each had cut him deep and irrevocably changed him, made him something he might never have been. He didn't know if the change he'd suffered was for the better or worse, maybe he never would. But he knew for a fact that the violence strewn and blood splattered road had led him to Levi. Each broken limb, every broken heart led him to humanity's strongest. _And I'll find my way back to him_.

The look Levi had sent him that night, that look of grateful affection muddled with a sadness steeped in desperation, had sent Eren lunging forward, pulling Levi into a feverish kiss while his Captain was way ahead of him-he always was- working on removing their clothes and gear. It was sweet, and it was slow. Levi had treated him with such attentive care that Eren's moans were wet with tears of awe at how wonderful Levi was and how much it felt like the last time.

Levi cradled Eren's head against his chest afterwards in the solemn afterglow, and whispered in a voice so vulnerable and real, "I wish I could take all those shitty years we spent suffering and give them to you." Eren, who had finally stopped crying, felt moisture return to his eyes as he took one of Levi's hands and hugged it tight against his chest, curling closer to that amazing man.

"It's okay. I understand." And for the first time he both loved and understood Captain Levi, felt closer to him than he ever thought possible.

But they had been thrown apart when the Scouts were forced to confront several titans on open terrain. Eren had transformed, helping to take out the aberrants and most of the normals. Levi tried to cut him out when he started straying from the objective, but Eren had fused with his titan to the point where it seemed impossible to remove him. Eren was able to blearily open his eyes in response to Captain Levi's yelled expletives in time to see a titan running toward them, mouth and eyes disgustingly wide. He looked to Levi making expert cuts, manically trying to free him- _he won't make it in time_.

With the arm Levi had managed to pry from the steaming flesh, Eren swung suddenly at Levi, knocking the older man off balance and off the nape of Eren's titan. He had just enough time to see his Captain's look of horrified shock as he fell to the ground, before the titan barreled into the deteriorating body of Eren's prone titan.

Then, Eren fell.

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He had been on the edge of a cliff, hadn't he? That's how he had gotten to the bottom of this chasm. There was the Captain, the titan, the fall…

Eren must have landed on his arm when he fell; it was bent awkwardly underneath him. After confirming he was still fused to his titan, albeit just at the ankles, Eren forced himself to pry a blade from the grip of what looked to be a fallen Scout. He only looked long enough to confirm it wasn't someone he knew. The titan must have been slain at the top.

He freed himself and salvaged the gear from the same scout, pulling the hood down to cover their face. There was just enough gas to get Eren to the cliff top. He walked from there, the sun setting behind him.

But now it was pitch black out, Eren's only guiding light the star he frantically kept track of, the star Levi had pointed out to him as the one he should follow if he was ever lost. He had to have walked for hours and though he was desperate to get back, he was beginning to lose hope, his steps slowing and his eyes drooping. What if he had gone the wrong way? What if the Scouts had moved, considering him a lost cause? What if Captain Levi left him-?

Eren tripped over a branch. He fell and waited for the impact, doubting he'd get back up once he hit the ground. Here was as good a place to die as any.

But the ground never touched him. He never touched the ground. Instead, he was engulfed in something warm and soft yet reassuringly solid. It smelled like tea and rainwater all of a sudden. It smelled like-

"You _stupid_ fucking shitty brat."

He only knew one person who spoke like that.

"Captain?" Though his face was pressed into the rough fabric of the cloak, his query was heard.

"Who else, dumbass?" If he was actually dead, and this was his own personal heaven, the universe wouldn't hear him complain. With a scary ability to read his thoughts-an ability shared by no one except Mikasa and maybe Armin-Levi spoke against his ear in a voice of exasperation and frenzied relief, "You're _alive_ Eren." Eren was pulled closer against his Captain, and he smiled at the crack in Levi's voice. "You're alive." He reassured them both.

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 _Ne, I may or may not have gone overboard with this one. I honestly don't know why I'm so obsessed with this song, but as soon as I heard it, I knew the fic I wrote for it would have to be special. Also, Eren and Levi are too perfect to pass up._

 _Thank you for reading._


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